Cold Case Adventures and how to Survive Them

Send us Fan Mail Sir Douglas Mawson - scientist, Antarctic explorer, author and grandfather. Emlyn Thomas, the grandson, tells of Mawson the man as seen through a child's eyes.

Send us Fan Mail In 1985 a young builder named Dave Willis arrived at Davis Antarctic Base to take part in an extensive building program. Here he describes the tribulations and the great privilege of travelling to the coldest continent and living and working through an Antarctic summer.

Send us Fan Mail Jim Brooks is one of the very early Australian Antarctic expeditioners. He was the geophysicist at Heard Island in 1973 and was present at the founding of Mawson Base in 1954, helping in the planning and establishment of the new base. Jim gives a first-hand account of some of his amazing Antarctic experiences of those early years to Phil Wolter And Gil Barton.

Send us Fan Mail Living in Antarctica 49 years ago was a special experience. This account describes that experience from three different perspectives. In August 2025 Phil met with Gil Barton and Neil MacDonald to revive memories of the year they spent at Mawson Base, Antarctica throughout 1976 and the summer of 1977.

Send us Fan Mail Around September to October as spring begins, life returns to the Antarctic continent.  Adelie Penguins appear on the islands, seal holes appear on the fast decaying sea ice. The wildlife returns. Phil discusses witnessing this annual transformation in 1976 with Peter Niblett. This experience inspired the production of a children’s book based around the Antarctic wildlife. The boo...

Send us Fan Mail There is no doubt that a woman’s perspective of life in the Antarctic is unique. An adventurous spirit adds extra colour to the Antarctic woman’s story. Lyn Irvine is definitely such a woman. Listen to Lyn as she relates some of her remarkable Antarctic adventures and achievements during the years 1998 to 2002 at Mawson and Casey Australian Antarctic Bases.

Send us Fan Mail After 15 months in the Antarctic at Mawson Base and throughout the area called Enderby Land, Phil and his fellow expeditioners left for Australia on the Nella Dan in the summer of 1977 - a journey which spanned 13 days. This account describes one person’s experience of leaving such a unique environment to resume life in Australia.

Send us Fan Mail In the winter of 1976 at Mawson Antarctica, Phil and fellow Antarctic expeditioners travelling by Husky dog teams to Auster Emperor Penguin Rookery, three times.  Each journey was different, presenting its own difficulties and spectacular attractions. This first part of an interview of Phil Wolter by Peter Niblett describes the arduous journey from Mawson when undertaking the firs...

Send us Fan Mail In 1979 David Blaby returned to the Antarctic taking the position of Plant Inspector at Mawson. Circumstances led to him staying for two consecutive winters - very rare for the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE).  The years 1979-81 were still the era of the dogs on base. Hear how these dogs were actually flown to the summer field base to be used with survey...

Send us Fan Mail Vonna Keller, Antarctic Veteran has spent time at all Australian Antarctic bases, including Macquarie Island from 2005 to 2014. This podcast covers the years 2005-2008. Vonna relates a few of her amazing experiences, particularly as camp manager while building the first international runway near Casey Base in 2005. The airstrip was capable of handling aircraft as large as the Airb...

Send us Fan Mail David Blaby, Antarctic veteran expeditioner, journeyed to Casey Base in 1969 one year after the Australian base was opened.  As an experienced Diesel Mechanic his job was to keep the base running.  David recounts how his Antarctic saga came about and the many adventures, some rather bizarre, that followed. Of special interest to other veterans is his first-hand account of the orig...

Send us Fan Mail Australian Antarctic Bases have many and varied vehicles to: keep the base running; support summer survey and research programs; and for recreation. Mawson base in 1976 was no exception.  This is account of huge variation, adventures and mis-adventures with the vehicles that year.  No expeditioner was harmed in creating the stories recorded in this podcast.

Send us Fan Mail First day in the Antarctic is different for all.  Phil’s first day arriving at Mawson was very different. Here he explains to Peter Niblett what this experience, on Christmas Day 1975,  was like and why it was different in some surprising and somewhat bizarre  ways.

Send us Fan Mail The history of Casey Antarctic Base begins in 1965 with arrival of the first construction crew.   One of the team - Ron Wiggins - provides a first-hand account of the birth of Casey, the end of Wilkes 4 years later and the many adventures he had in the frozen continent. 

Send us Fan Mail Trapped, isolated in a fierce Antarctic blizzard on a mountain top.  The tent - their only shelter, begins to rip apart.  What do two young Australians do? This is the question Peter Niblett asks Phil Wolter when this actually occurred in the summer of 1977 on Latham Peak, Antarctica

Send us Fan Mail Four Mawson Base adventurers decide to take two teams of Husky dogs to a feature called Low Tongue - a rocky outcrop protruding from the Antarctic coastal ice cliff. It was intended to be a relaxing day trip.  The journey, completed in one day, had an unexpected twist. Share the adventures along the way as told by Phil Wolter to Peter Niblett

Send us Fan Mail It’s no secret that the Antarctic Continent is a dangerous place and claimed the lives of many. In his 15 month period manning Mawson Base Phil experienced his own brushes with death.  One involved the birth of an iceberg and another came about when Phil decided to climb this same berg a few months later, alone, and got into strife.  On another occasion he was in an open snow trac...

Send us Fan Mail At the Antarctic base, Mawson, an important safety feature was the Nightwatch.  In the 70’s each wintering expeditioner was required to undertake this vital function as the Nightwatchman. A seemingly mundane task to mitigate the significant fire risk, it nevertheless seemed to attract some rather bizarre experiences.  This was certainly so for Phil the Geophysicist  in 1976 as he...

Send us Fan Mail In the years when Australian Antarctic programs were centred around the area west of Mawson Base it was customary to receive an invitation from the Russians to visit there large Antarctic base called Molodezhnaya, situated on the western edge of Australian Antarctic Territory.  Phil, as one of the summer participants, was lucky enough to be included as a visitor representing A.N.A...

Send us Fan Mail Each year at Mawson base new huskies were needed to replace the elderly.  The 1976 breeding program created over a dozen pups.  The youngest of these was named Nancy.  She was a cute, good-looking and sweet natured pup.  But Nancy grew up.  The male dogs noticed and Nancy quickly came to enjoy her canine popularity. Peter Niblett’s probing questions uncover a near disaster for Phi...

Send us Fan Mail After arriving in the Antarctic on December 25 1975, Phil Wolter was shown the ropes of the Geophysical Observatory and settled into the routine to keep the records continuous and of high quality. Pete interviews Phil on what that routine was and the type of instruments used to run both the seismic and geomagnetic observatories. Of course, over the following year many things can g...

Send us Fan Mail In late January of an Antarctic summer.  Survey work to the west of Mawson Base was well underway and Mawson was manned by a mixture of 1975 and1976 personnel.  One of the old guard felt an itch for one last trip with the dogs and asked two newbies, one being Phil Wolter, to come with him. Naturally Phil and Neil agreed. In the absence of sea ice the only alternative was an inland...

Send us Fan Mail At the edge of the Shackelton Ice shelf lies an extinct Antarctic volcano named Gaussberg. In early 1977 Phil was one of the few passengers of the Nella Dan to visit this ancient geological wonder. His task was to obtain updated measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field. As a geophysicist Phil had a unique historic link this place dating back to 1912 - the historic era of  pionee...

Send us Fan Mail On Christmas Day, 1975 about fifteen trained personnel had crossed the Southern Ocean and arrived at the Antarctic sea-ice edge to begin the coming year at Australia’s Mawson Base. The account of the trip down in the Nella Dan, the magic of the ice edge, violent storms, the strange events on arrival and the initial settling in to our new routine are here related as Phil Wolter ans...

Send us Fan Mail Mawson Station, Antarctica - in the spring of 1976 three expeditioners saddled up a team of Huskies and set off in search of a hollow iceberg, rumoured to exist somewhere in the vicinity of Mawson. Peter Niblett interviews Philip Wolter to obtain a first hand account of the adventure, along with other interesting facts about life at an Australian Antarctic base in the mid-seventie...